Land Use Policies

News about Land Use Policies, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jan. 27, 2015

Pres Obama's proposal to ban energy exploration on 12 million acres of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be designated wilderness elicits angry and bitter reaction from Alaska residents and political leaders; Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, chairwoman of Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, calls announcement 'a stunning attack on our sovereignty.' MORE

Jan. 27, 2015

Editorial welcomes proposal from Pres Obama to designate 1.5 million acres of Alaska's coastal plain as a permanent wilderness refuge; observes decision comes amid debate over whether to exploit area's vast oil reserve, argument that has been deflated by plummeting oil prices. MORE

Jan. 20, 2015

New York State appellate court upholds lower court ruling that privately owned waterways beginning and ending on public land are subject to public right of navigation; original case involved outdoor journalist Phil Brown, who was sued for trespassing by family that owns lake between private property and public land in Adirondack Park in upstate New York. MORE

Jan. 11, 2015

Thousands of businesses have been seized from their owners since Crimea's unification with Russia 10 months ago; Crimean government declares takeovers nationalizations. MORE

Dec. 9, 2014

Proposed 60-acre, 100,000-plot cemetery in San Ramon, Calif, faces opposition from many residents; some object to water use, but Chinese and Indian immigrants balk over cultural believe that living near cemetery is forbidden. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Proposed development of sites bordering Grand Canyon National Park have pitted Indian tribes against each other and park officials and conservationists against well-financed developers; park faces several challenges, biggest of which is proposed $1 billion Grand Canyon Escalade development that would include restaurants, boutique hotels, stores, trailer park and gondola to take visitors down to additional attractions on canyon floor. MORE

Nov. 25, 2014

Appraisal column on trouble encountered by real estate broker Alexander Peters in effort to sell eight acres of land he owns in Amagansett, LI, to Town of East Hampton; sale would prevent any future development of land, which sits on a pristine aquifer, protecting local water supply; descendants of original owner, however, have first right of refusal should land be sold again, and have moved to exercise right and block sale. MORE

Nov. 17, 2014

Spanish government is selling land in deals that politicians hope will fill treasuries and that critics see as a possible repeat of a real estate bubble that led to an economic crisis. MORE

Oct. 27, 2014

Op-Ed article by New Mexico Sen Martin Heinrich opposes growing effort to transfer ownership of public lands in America's West to state control; warns change will allow states to sell land to the highest bidder, and that Western taxpayers will be saddled with the cost of overseeing the rest; refuses to abide the sale of some of America's most treasured landscapes to private interests, including oil, gas, timber and mining companies. MORE

Oct. 13, 2014

China's most able farmers, frustrated by how little they earn, have migrated to cities, hollowing out rural districts in Chinese heartland; farm output remains high, but rural living standards have stagnated compared with cities, and few in the countryside see their future there; agriculture has become burden for country; government reform gives farmers rights, but not ownership. MORE

Oct. 11, 2014

Caesars Entertainment is among 16 casino developers competing for up to four New York State licenses to build casino hotel and resort in Harriman, NY; village is named after E H Harriman, railroad baron of the Gilded Age whose descendants are trying to block the development and preserve the land. MORE

Oct. 1, 2014

There are now twice as many wild horses in the West as federal land managers say the land can sustain, and the system for keeping them under control is on the verge of crisis. MORE

Sep. 30, 2014

Editorial welcomes Obama administration's $554 million settlement with Navajo Nation, calling it a milestone of long-deferred justice for decades of federal mismanagement of Native American lands; applauds administration for negotiating settlements totaling $2.61 billion so far, and for reversing stalling tactics by the Interior Department that have long tied up tribes in endless litigation. MORE

Sep. 28, 2014

Chinese real estate tycoon Huang Nubo is looking to buy land in Norway, creating speculation about moves by China to gain a permanent foothold in the Arctic; region is growing in economic significance as global warming opens new and cheaper shipping routes from Asia; also Arctic region holds around 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its natural gas, reserves that have been untouched because of difficulty and high cost of their development. MORE

Sep. 25, 2014

Montalcino Journal; regional government in Tuscany, world renowned for its verdant vineyards and their wines, approves new rural preservation plan, saying that too many vines have been planted and warning of soil erosion; wine producers are asking for parts of the plan to be scrapped, MORE

Aug. 5, 2014

Town of Southampton on Long Island pays $12.5 million for development rights to farmland in Water Mill to protect and maintain its agricultural heritage, practice pioneered by Suffolk County in 1970s; in addition to buying development rights on 33 acres, town has also bought equestrian rights, vineyard rights and restrictions on leaving land fallow for more than two years. MORE

Jul. 28, 2014

British government plans to make more land available for licensing for oil and natural gas exploration in first such expansion since 2008; it is opening large new tracts of land for exploratory drilling as part of an effort to encourage exploitation of shale fuel. MORE

Jun. 5, 2014

Dr Robert Costanza study in journal Global Environmental Change updates 1997 study claiming that protections provided by natural ecosystems, like wetlands, coral reefs and forests, are worth $33 trillion, or $48.7 trillion in today's dollars; new study shows that true value of world's ecosystems is at least three times as high. MORE

May. 21, 2014

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration says proposal to save Pier 40 on Lower West Side of Manhattan by selling air rights to owner of huge industrial building must go through city's land use review; city's position puts mayor's office at odds with plan by Gov Andrew M Cuomo's administration and Hudson River Park Trust, which had sought to bypass input from local community. MORE

Apr. 28, 2014

Paul Krugman Op-Ed column laments that rancher Cliven Bundy, who refused to pay fees for grazing his animals on federal land, has turned out to be racist; notes that has allowed conservatives an easy way to dissociate themselves from him without facing up to the terrible wrong turn their movement has taken; contends their treatment of Bundy as some kind of libertarian hero is crazy. MORE

Apr. 27, 2014

Maureen Dowd criticizes deep hypocrisy of racist rant by rancher Cliven Bundy, arguing that he himself is guilty of the free-ride mentality he associates with black Americans; notes that Bundy has refused to pay minimal fees for his cattle to graze on federal lands; laments level of support he has received from Tea Party and on conservative media. MORE

Apr. 26, 2014

Gail Collins Op-Ed column notes flight of conservative supporters from cause of rancher Cliven Bundy, who refuses to pay federal grazing fees, following racist comments by Bundy; urges conservatives to use caution in supporting people who say that they do not recognize United States government as existing. MORE

Apr. 24, 2014

Standoff over cattle grazing on public land in Nevada is highlighting deep resentment over federal government's sprawling ownership of Western land; situation is illustrated by plight of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose family has grazed cattle there since they homesteaded in 1870s; Bundy owes the government more than $1 million in grazing fees, and he stopped paying after the Bureau of Land Management ordered him to restrict the periods when his herd roams. MORE

Mar. 31, 2014

Hilcorp energy company is seeking to use an unused 1961 Pennsylvania law to force four holdout landowners in New Bedford, Pa, to accept oil and gas drilling under their land; law, known as forced pooling, means that property owners who do not sign leases get bundled in with those who do. MORE

Mar. 15, 2014

Rural district of Wood Colony in California, community settled more than a century ago by a religious group called the Old German Baptist Brethren, is facing change; residents are fourth- and fifth-generation farmers who tend an unspoiled landscape and are hoping to stop plans by City of Modesto to bring about 1,800 acres of Wood Colony under city jurisdiction to develop. MORE

Mar. 8, 2014

Battle over planned restaurant for Union Square Park in Manhattan is only latest chapter in decades-old debate over whether eateries constitute appropriate use of New York City parks; first sit-down restaurant opened in Central Park in the 1860s, and there are now more than a dozen such establishments in city parks, generating more than $6 million a year in revenue for city's general fund. MORE

Jan. 15, 2014

Op-Ed article by Tim Hanstad and Roy Prosterman, executives at nonprofit group Landesa, contends the developing world's landless poor routinely bear the brunt of natural disasters like Typhoon Haiyan; urges international community to push for enforcement of long-ignored land tenure reform laws in the Philippines. MORE

Dec. 14, 2013

Landowners in Philippines are thwarting rebuilding efforts of area squatters in aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan; land disputes at settlements and shantytowns up and down coast are among many reasons recovery effort in nation is faltering. MORE

Dec. 13, 2013

Federal judge rules that a cross on federal land in San Diego violates the First Amendment ban on a government endorsement of religion, ordering it removed within 90 days. MORE

Nov. 1, 2013

New York State voters will decide century-old debate on more than 200 parcels of land in Township 40, in Adirondack Park, that state has long maintained as its property to dismay of those living there who believe they are owners; constitutional amendment would permit State Legislature to settle long-standing title disputes over the Hamilton County parcels, put the land in private hands and add new forest preserve lands. MORE

Oct. 27, 2013

Conservationist group American Prairie Reserve is trying to build a new kind of national park in Montana, buying up old ranches to create a vast grassland reserve where 10,000 bison roam; supporters see the privately financed project as way to create wide-open public spaces but some ranchers object, fearing the region will lose its identity to wealthy outsiders. MORE

Oct. 11, 2013

New York City Council and group of tenants file lawsuit in move to block Bloomberg administration from acting on plan to lease land in public housing developments to private developers for market-rate apartments. MORE

Oct. 1, 2013

Op-Ed article by farmers Lindsey Lusher Shute and Benjamin Shute warns wealthy individuals are using easements to buy up protected farmland for leisure use, pricing out those who would use land for production; calls for New York and other states to adopt programs like the Vermont Land Trust that establish stricter conservation easements to keep farms in the hands of farmers. MORE

Oct. 1, 2013

Newly created sugar plantations in Cambodia have created thousands of jobs for destitute migrant workers and subsistence farmers; still, international trade pacts that foster exports for the country and other poor nations can have unintended effect of encouraging land grabs by wealthy, politically connected families. MORE

Sep. 19, 2013

Bureau of Land Management plans to open some of the San Rafael Swell in central Utah to oil and gas drilling, prompting alarm from conservation groups. MORE

Sep. 19, 2013

Environmentalists, local officials and nature lovers are in disagreement over how 21,000 acres of Adirondacks recently purchased by New York State from nonprofit Nature Conservancy should be used; question comes down to whether land should be designated as 'wilderness' or 'wild forest,' which would allow motorized vehicles like cars, motorboats and Jet Skis. MORE

Sep. 13, 2013

Honduran government grants more than 7 percent of its territory to indigenous Miskito communities living on the land, initiative intended to help protect and preserve region's forests. MORE

Jun. 12, 2013

Interior Department inspector general's report finds that Bureau of Land Management is failing to collect tens of millions of dollars in lease payments for coal mining on federal lands. MORE

May. 17, 2013

Obama administration issues new set of proposed rules governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on public lands; Interior Dept proposal, which would allow some drilling fluids to be kept secret, does not please environmental advocates or the oil and gas industry. MORE

May. 8, 2013

United States Tennis Assn says it has reached agreement with New York City over contentious plan to acquire strip of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens as part of an overhaul of facilities for United States Open tournament; will give city 1.56 acres of parkland that it already controlled in exchange for 0.68-acre plot, which consists mostly of paved pathway. MORE

May. 8, 2013

Vivian Marino 30-Minute Interview with Melanie Meyers, partner at law firm Fried Frank, which specializes in land use. MORE

May. 7, 2013

Michael Powell Gotham column scores Mayor Michael R Bloomberg for his new obsession, wanting to let Major League Soccer place a soccer stadium near the core of Flushing Meadow Park; says Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s vision of a soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows seems to take precedence over a city blueprint unveiled in 2008 to make New York more sustainable and environmentally friendly. MORE

Apr. 17, 2013

Environmental watchdogs want to reclaim land in Colorado that was used for uranium mines, which have long been out of operation; say time to act is now, as operators are hoping price of uranium recovers and they can resume operations. MORE

Mar. 31, 2013

South Dakota site of 1890 Wounded Knee Indian massacre is again subject of introspection and dispute; land long ago passed into non-Indian hands, and current owner is asking $3.9 million for 40-acre plot, far more than deeply impoverished Oglala Sioux say the land is worth; tribe sees asking price as greedy and disrespectful, and is at odds over whether site should be preserved or developed. MORE

Mar. 30, 2013

Dispute over parcel of land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, has pitted George J Weinmann and Janice Lauletta Weinmann, who hope to turn space into museum dedicated to Civil War ship USS Monitor, against gentrifying neighborhood's push to turn waterfront into park. MORE

Mar. 19, 2013

United States Tennis Association, operator of US Open, needs less than an acre of city-owned land in Corona, Queens, to execute a $500 million plan to replace two of its aging courts inside Flushing-Meadows Corona Park; proposal faces an unusually well-organized opposition from other development organizations and from those who say park is under siege and that land should be retained for community use. MORE

Mar. 16, 2013

Environmental advocates are banding together with ranchers, hunters and rich landowners in effort to preserve landscapes of the West by buying out their opponents; conservation groups are trying to buy mineral leases that oil and gas companies purchase from federal government at energy auctions, and have had some early successes. MORE

Mar. 8, 2013

Recreational Equipment Inc chief executive Sally Jewell, who is Pres Obama's nominee for interior secretary, deflects many questions at her confirmation hearing, but makes clear she supports expanded oil and gas development on public lands and waters, including exploratory drilling off North Slope of Alaska; says she believes climate change is real. MORE

Feb. 10, 2013

Editorial expresses hope that Pres Obama will do more in his second term to protect public's land from commercial interests. MORE

Feb. 7, 2013

Bureau of Land Management, facing public outcry, announces that it will not put thousands of acres of public lands in Colorado’s North Fork Valley up for bid at auction for oil and gas drilling. MORE

{"type":"article","show_header_text":true,"header":"ARTICLES ABOUT LAND USE POLICIES","query":"(nytddes = \"Land Use Policies\")","search_query":"(nytddes:\"Land Use Policies\")","num_search_articles":"10","show_summary":true,"show_byline":true,"show_pub_date":true,"hide_thumbnails":false,"show_kicker":false,"show_title":false,"show_related_topics":true,"show_rad_links":true,"show_subtopics":true,"exclude_topics":"LAND USE POLICIES; LAND USEPOLICIES; LANDUSE POLICIES","more_on_header":"MORE ON LAND USE POLICIES AND:","alternate_index_subidx":"","show_thumbnails":true}

Wounds of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war that ended in 2009 are still widely apparent, and the Tamil minority is growing impatient with a recently elected government that vowed to hasten the postwar reconciliation process.